People love proclaiming their opinions and, thanks to a handy little tool called the Internet, they are well equipped with multiple channels, feedback loops, and forums to do so. Some opinions quickly fade into cluttered comment sections and others make the front page of Reddit. Still, some seep into the digital space with such supremacy that they’re subject to popular scrutiny and are being gabbed about in coffee shops and offices from Seattle to Singapore. As such perceptions gain momentum in the digital and physical worlds, the buzz term “thought leadership” seems taking off as well. It’s a phrase that is asserted among countless LinkedIn profiles, professional resumes, and author bios, but remains largely ambivalent as far as self-proclaiming declarations go. The so-called authorities who beat their chests as industry mavens and innovators often underestimate the fact that, as self-publication becomes more viable and “thought leaders” pop up left and right, professional credibility is becoming increasingly vague.

Transparent practices are everything to PCR. Our client relationships, work environment, and overall model of business are based upon honesty and integrity. As marketing continues to progress toward user experience design and analysis, we believe it is vital to fuel the discussion on transparency and help organizations realize the importance of openness with their customers, employees, and strategies. This weekly series highlights the organizations who are getting it right and who other businesses can look toward for guidance.

In most companies, the role of copywriter is far from glamorous. My mind typically gravitates toward an image of some poor, unfortunate soul confined to a dark room with a thick stack of business documents in one hand and a thesaurus in the other, wracking his brain for the best way to say “buy our stuff”. Okay, maybe its not that bad. However, I firmly believe that the day-to-day tasks of the conventional copywriter are largely underrated. Language and effective communication span across all industries and professions, and cannot be underestimated in a world where brands are continuously shouting over one another for attention. In the end, it isn’t the loudest ones that will receive responses. It’s those that have the most insightful things to say and the most interesting ways to say them; it’s the brands with the best voices.

Marketing is changing completely. Not only in terms of the way that traditional practices are diminishing, but in the way that people who do marketing think. For the majority of marketing history, practitioners have applied long-term, waterfall strategies to brands, relying upon static artifacts like fiscal reports and ambiguous, annual product planning to theoretically increase revenue. Such reasoning was (and in many cases, still is) due to the idea that marketers have all of the answers, so much so that they can predict the future behaviors of their customers.  This mindset looks something like: “If we implement X strategy, we will get X number of new Facebook fans, X number of our product will be sold, and we will increase X amount of revenue from last year, making the campaign successful.” However, the various values of “X” become a lot less predictable as the balance of power moves further from the marketer and closer to the user.

Transparent practices are everything to PCR. Our client relationships, work environment, and overall model of business is based upon honesty and integrity. As marketing continues to progress toward user experience design and analysis, we believe it is vital to fuel the discussion on transparency and help organizations realize the importance of openness with their customers, employees, and strategies. This featured series highlights the organizations that are getting it right and setting themselves apart as upstanding examples of responsiveness and honesty.

Whether you work in an industry that deals in B2B, retail manufacturing, or directly with customer service, all modern marketing efforts are continuously moving toward content creation.Every textual material that your visitors see, from page-long blog posts to website copy, conveys a message that reflects back to your company.

The pros recognize it; over 78% of today’s CMOs acknowledge custom content as the future of marketing. The people recognize it; 61% of consumers report that they are more likely to buy directly from companies that tailor thoughtful content than those that do not. As the media landscape continues to evolve with technology, it’s becoming increasingly apparent that users seek an individualized purchasing journey and businesses must deliver it.

When working with new clients, our primary course of action involves providing them with the perspective to target current problems and devise feasible solutions. We strategically analyze existing data, assess major competition, and provide insight in order to optimize responsive, connective campaigns. In many cases, the process to get from problem to solution evolves through prototyping. During the prototyping process, our team meets face-to-face with the client to devise research-oriented roadmap toward optimization and lead generation. Whether the challenge is to conquer design challenges, revamp outdated dated business models, or work on content improvement, prototyping has proven to be a beneficial method to understand both a client and their customer’s pain points on a firsthand basis.